Exposures. With this report, that trumps digital operation asked Julian Assange directly for help naflt new report. Woodruff saying there is the closest known connection between Trumps Campaign and assange. Julian assange claiming to be a publish we are the same rights as any other news organization. There is a finding that Russian Military intelligence related material to wikileaks as a conduit. It is an explosive move if they asked asergeant to coordinate on releasing emails and it shows potential intent if he finds that related crimes occur. Lets be clear. Nbc news has not obtained the emails cited in this report. And often these stories include denials but tonight i can tell that you Julian Assanges response where he addresses the claim, says no denial. He says we can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica. So for the first time Julian Assange confirming that Donald Trumps team approaching him and he rejected it. The report that the Trump Campaign was going to these lengths for clintons 30,000 emails puts this claim from donald trump in a new light. Russia, if youre listening, i hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. Remember, when donald trump made that bizarre statement in july 2016, it caused shock waves that were even too much for trump. A candidate who never retracts anything. He came out and he then personally insisted that what you just saw wasnt him asking russia to find the emails. And while his words literally said that, they were sarcastic. When im being sarcastic. Of course ill being sarcastic. But you have 33,000 emails deleted. Sarcastic. Today is one of those days that sheds a lot of light. The Public Defense at the time there, donald trump in that fox news interview, is that he wasnt really asking for help on the emails. Today we learned privately, his digital team was really asking for help on the emails. And in such a serious way, such a serious level, that Julian Assange said he did reject the sxroech this of course this wasnt a typical team. It was led by steve bannon who used to sit on the board and hold a multimilliondollar stake as well as robert mercer. While the u. S. Government has never publicly charged assange with any claims, he says it runs the hostile service and cites that edward snowden, a leaker, who donald trump used to criticize in the harshest terms. Hes a terrible guy. I said it right from the beginning. This guy is a bad guy. And there is still a thing called execution. Tonight, the Trump Campaign responds saying, we as campaign made the choice to rely on the voter data of the rnc to help donald trump. He claims the data from any other source played a key role in the victory are false. A key role. Well talk about that in a moment. The general Election Campaign at 110 days. We just looked this up. Donald trump cited wikileaks 137 times. Portraying an interest in the site that we can see trickled down to his digital team. This just came out. This just came out. Wikileaks. I love wikileaks. We see so much from these wikileaks. Wikileaks . Did you hear this . Wikileaks. Unveils horrible, horrible things about Hillary Clinton. Boy that wikileaks has done a job on her, hasnt it . Betsy woodruff broke this story. Let me start with this. Why did Donald Trumps secret team contact assange in. According to the team with two sources of not in the congressional investigation, Alexander Nicks, the Trump Campaign paid millions of dollars to for work that it conducted during the election system, nicks himself said that he reached out to assange in hope thats Cambridge Analytica would be able to help assange public and distribute 30,000 emails that have reportedly been deleted from the private server she used while she was secretary of state. Those were something of a great white whale for republicans during the election. All sorts of republicans were desperate to find them. There was a host of theories as to what could be in them. There were lots of efforts to track them down. Those efforts were going on in the Trump Campaign to the the spent the Alexander Nicks, the ceo of a data firm, specifically offered to help assange distribute those emails. After you went to press, they are not denying the core of your report. Exactly. That statement i thought was quite telling. What it says is, it is an effort by the Trump Campaign to distance themselves from cambridge an will theica. Ive been reporting on them for quite some time and one thing hear frequently from talking on republican inside heres are familiar with the way this firm works is that it doesnt have a great reputation in media circles and in data analytic circles. And something ive heard from folks who were on the inside of the campaign, is that Cambridge Analytica vastly overstated work did it for the Trump Campaign during the election cycle. That raises some questions. Why was the Trump Campaign paying millions of dollars to a data firm when wasnt a key player in its own data operation . According to the statements from folks inside the campaign. So the efforts to distance themselves from Cambridge Analytica, milquetoast as best. Thank you. You covered the white house. You look at this report. The direct request to work assange, his denial, his rejection of the request, confirming that it happened. And late tonight, the Trump Campaign not denying it either. Connect the dots. It is really a shocking development. What you have is an american who is obviously at an Important Role within the Trump Campaign offering to commit a crime. Essentially what hes saying is, i hope, or i believe you have these hacked emails. I would love to distribute those for you. Im not telling your viewers anything new by saying hacking into a server in the United States is a crime. Here you have someone saying, i want to work with you on that. If an agreement was reached. We dont know that. He made an offer to assange who is of dubious veracity. Someone i wouldnt necessarily believe but he claims he rejected that offer. At the very least you have someone offering to commit a crime. And thats pretty serious when it is the president of the United States campaign. And the investigation we know in the russia probe in congress which was a public reference by former trump adviser roger stone about assange. Take a listen to roger stone who didnt go as publicly as this. I think Julian Assange a hero. I have not spoken with him. I have not met with mr. Assange and i never said i had. We communicated through an intermediary. There was no intermediary. This was refusing to deny this direct discussion. Absolutely. And there are some real important threads that need to be pulled. I take a little more restrained view. I dont think weve crossed over that path from Campaign Activity thats lawful to awful to conduct thats clearly criminal. But what investigators will want to do is take a look at the time line. We know that Cambridge Analytical was hired in 2016. We know that this occurred at some point in that same month. Then we have the trump comment in july. So the devil will be in the details. It will be the sequence in which these events occurred. And most importantly, whether or not nicks was communicating with someone in the campaign. The emails are not reported to be from anyone in the Campaign Staff but there will be more that prosecutors will have access to and this could play very badly and move beyond trump world involvement in russia. We do have the candidate who stood up there and said, hey, vladimir putin, russia, help me find these emails. I have the prosecutors for the wall. Lets talk the politics here. This Campaign Statement is remarkable. Not only does it not deny outreach the Julian Assange for the emails, not only does it not deny that. It says cambridge didnt play a key role. You dont need to be a lawyer to know that role and key role are not the same thing. They were paying this firm. However you want to qualify it. They were paying this firm millions of dollars and thats what is important. And Alexander Nicks is close to the mercers who were the big funders behind bannon and trump. It seems like every time we hear about one of these, roger stone and Julian Assange, theres always another one that comes out. And regardless of what we find out from the actual meetings, that information was weaponized. It wasnt the 30,000 emails but it was wikileaks. I remember it distinctly because i was in a tv newsroom ready to go on and talk about access hollywood. It was hours later that the first emails were dumped and they are laid out. The president cant have it both ways. He cant talk about it 137 times and then at the end claim that it had no effect. So the were going to talk about the definition of collusion and the different meetings. Not the 30,000 emails but the weaponizing. And how will they look at these contakts and how does intent play in . If you say i want to work someone and they say no, how does that help you . This is incredibly helpful to prosecutors. As bunch, they tend to believe where theres smoke, theres fire. There are russian contacts in every direction you turn. Now they ran the data operation for trump. And he is receiving out to assange, showing this willingness to help. If that can be linked back to key players in the campaign, then intent will become a foregone conclusion. And briefly, Paul Manafort is under the gun here. What do we know about how he figures into these probes . Thats the big money aspect. And thats the reason why you see mueller staffing one so many crimes attorneys. And the line leading to essentially Money Laundering being one of the possible charges. The two people at the epicenter are Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. And it comes down to what money was being traded behind the scenes and the financial gain. And i think this is one threat and one possible line of charges that he could be coming up against. And hes famous for multimilliondollar deals over decades. He offered to work for the Trump Campaign for free. Now we see Julian Assange confirming for the first time. We know you as russian expert. There are more and more rumors about you potentially running for attorney general in illinois . Are you close to making that decision . When will you make it . I think i will be making a decision tomorrow. So everyone should stay tuned to msnbc tomorrow and look at my twitter and facebook and ill have more details. So youre going to decide whether youre in or out of the race tomorrow. Yes. Making a hint of news. Thank you for your reporting. Coming up, the trumpification of the gop on. What is behind these new republican investigations into history of the obama administration. And later, you may have heard a lot of spin with this trump dossier. Tonight, later in the show, ill give you my breakdown separating fact from fiction and later, the frank from dodd frank here to talk about what he thinks may be the most important thing Trump Administration did this week. Is the stuff that matters . The stakes are so high, your finances, your future. How do you solve this . You dont. You partner with a firm that advises governments and the fortune 500, and, can deliver insight person to person, on what matters to you. Morgan stanley. Advil liquigels minis. Our first concentrated pill that rushes powerful relief. A small new size thats fast, cause its liquid. Woohoo youll ask, what pain . New advil liquigels minis. Psoriatic arthritis tries to get in my way . Watch me. Ive tried lots of things for my joint pain. Now . Watch me. Think id give up showing these guys how its done . Please. Real people with active Psoriatic Arthritis are changing the way they fight it. 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And were really unified on what we want to do. I dont think they do that. I know that they want tax cuts. They know we need it. I dont think they do it. I dont know flake very well but i know bob corker. I think they would do it. I think they feel they have to do it for the country. Heres how congressman jim himes explained it last night on the beat. It is far from true that theyre the only ones who feel that way. And they will accept that up when theyre not retiring. A handful who are opposed and then the vast bulk. 200 or so republicans on the spectrum between uncomfortable. And thats probably the best of it. Theyre appalled but not willing to say much. To paraphrase the rendition of general patton, you dont win in politics by ending your own career to make a point. You win by getting some other career to end. They will only win when they can do it and win primaries. With me now, executive director and author of trump nation. The author of the book, the road not taken. And the paraphrase, this is a step, this is leadership. Theyre widely praised for it. And yet i wonder what you think about the need to turn this leadership into a Winning Strategy to beat trump and trumps allies in primaries. I think this is beginning of something. I think it is incredibly important that senator flake and senator corker are out there telling the truth. And the situation where the entire Republican Party is being taken over by fake news, where they are buying this alternative universe, concocted by donald trump, to speak the truth. It is a radical act. And there is no question that theyve seen that out against trump in the last week. They are a small minority. But there have been others, in the 1930s, a very small minority like Winston Churchill said appeasement was a dishonorable strategy. And in the 1950s, people said segregation wasnt an honorable way. And in the 1950s most people thought joe mccarthy was a good guy who would smoke out these communists. You think this is at that level . Youre making serious allegations. Do you think it is at this level . I dont think weve ever seen anybody as dangerous or unfit for office as donald trump. I think it is long overdue and highly welcome that members of his own party are starting to speak the truth about what he is all about. Yes, they are a small minority but i suspect it will be very different than republicans today. I think anybody who supported donald trump has a lot to answer for. Has the guy who cannot be twruftd the office to which he has been trusted. I believe theyll be vindicated. He talks about history here. The saying in hip hop is the streets is watching. And history is watching. Among the many things i admire is that as he principled conservative. I think what you see in the Republican Party is this cris and values, morals and principles. The party isnt defining what is conservatism in the age of trump. It is split between populist swing and more traditional republicans. Thats the vacuum trump has filled. And you can call it the trumpification of the party. I think it doesnt reach back far enough. We saw in it sarah palins ascent. You can go back to barry gold water. Why would you want to . It is always important to study history. The difference with trump is how unfettered his ambitions are, making sure the party is cohesive. It is all about himself. I want to ask max about this. Gold water told the country, the pursuit of liberty is no vice when it is extreme. And i wonder if in trumps party, it has no edge or extreme. He doesnt seem to understand that hes confused it. For donald trump, it is all about donald trump. I dont think anyone can think he has the slightest interest in policy affairs. And he starts to talk about health care and taxes. He displays vast ignorance. He wants wins so he can boost his ego and brag about how people are giving him Standing Ovations as he just did. Something that really radically separates him from other people could you mention like barry goldwater. He was a serious guy who had real principles and donald trump has no principles. No skrooples, no morals. He will say or do anything to advance his own interests. I dont think who were seeing in donald trump right now is new. I am less optimistic that the speech is a water shed moment. I think until people speak out publicly, it is important. But symbolic. And fight until the end. Mc